AAU Launches Website for STEM Education Initiative

  • 07/22/14

The Association of American Universities (AAU), an association of leading public and private research universities, recently launched the AAU STEM Initiative Hub, a website that will both support and widen the impact of the association’s initiative to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields at its member institutions.

AAU has partnered with HUBzero, a web-based platform for scientific collaboration developed and managed by Purdue University, to create the AAU STEM Initiative Hub. The new website provides an interactive tool for AAU universities to showcase innovative institutional efforts they have undertaken to implement key elements of the Framework for Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Teaching and Learning, such as encouraging more interactive teaching practices and influencing departmental cultures to support faculty members who want to improve the quality of their teaching.

The new website will make the university examples accessible not only to AAU universities but also to non-member universities, the broader higher education community, and others engaged in STEM educational transformation, as well as the general public.

“As institutions take steps to improve their use of evidence-based teaching practices, AAU hopes these examples will serve as a resource for all colleges and universities working to improve undergraduate teaching and learning in STEM,” says AAU President Hunter Rawlings.

The Hub will also profile efforts being advanced by AAU’s eight STEM Initiative Project Sites and provide a secure space for AAU STEM Network members to share information about successful strategies and challenges they are facing in improving STEM education. The Hub will help cultivate relationships among those leading reform efforts at AAU universities, providing a forum for ongoing interaction and exchange of information and ideas.

“Our goal is to support and link AAU institutions grappling with similar challenges and barriers in reforming and improving STEM teaching and learning for undergraduate students,” says Rawlings.

The AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative is supported by grants from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the National Science Foundation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

About AAU
The Association of American Universities is an association of 60 U.S. and two Canadian research universities organized to develop and implement effective national and institutional policies supporting research and scholarship, graduate and professional education, undergraduate education, and public service in research universities.

Follow AAU on Twitter at @AAUniversities.

Featured

  • California District Completes Second Phase of Construction on Innovation Campus

    The Milpitas Unified School District (MUSD) in Milpitas, Calif., recently announced that Phase Two of construction is complete on the MUSD Innovation Campus, according to a news release. The district is partnering with Blach Construction and Quattrocchi Kwok Architects (QKA) on the education and workforce development center, which will support Calaveras Hills High School.

  • San Diego High School Hits Construction Milestone

    Part of a whole-site modernization project at Mira Mesa High School in San Diego, Calif., recently reached a construction milestone. The final steel beam of the new classroom and student services facility was put into place, completing the building’s structural framework.

  • The Impact of School Security on Student Well-Being

    One of the most fundamental human requirements, as outlined in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is the provision of basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing. In school, this hierarchy of needs shifts to include the need for physical, mental, and emotional safety. The student mind is not biologically wired to deal with the negative impacts of unsafe environments, which implies that security has a major impact on student well-being.

  • Minneapolis Public Schools Continues Work on New Construction, Renovation Projects

    Minneapolis Public Schools in Minneapolis, Minn., is working with integrated construction management firm Kraus-Anderson on renovations to North High School that include a new Career & Technical Education (CTE) Center, according to a news release. The three major components of the project are new academic and athletic spaces, a new central student commons, and a North CTE Center.

Digital Edition